First Thursday.
Mood & Aesthetic
I was born on a Thursday.
Many of us remember this childhood nursery rhyme:
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath Day,
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.
“I’m glad I wasn’t born on a Wednesday,” I remember thinking way back when. The idea that the day of my birth affected the adversity I faced offended me a little. Especially because my mother was born on a Sunday, and my sisters were born on Mondays…
Being a Thursday’s child has always been at the back of my mind.
“Far to go?” We didn’t really travel much, as I noted in The Dark Fantastic. “Far” in my childhood was Northland Mall at 8 Mile and Greenfield. “Far” was the nearly hourlong bus ride from my neighborhood school, Courtis Elementary, to Bates Academy on the far East Side, which was almost (but not quite — and that quite speaks volumes) in Grosse Pointe.
What’s more distant than “far”? Well, in those long-ago days, Ann Arbor felt like another country. It seemed like an adventure when I spent the weekend there with my youngest aunt at 8.... then there was an entire summer free of meaningful adult supervision at not-quite-15... and then 6 full years in my late 20s and early 30s, earning my PhD. My definition of “far” shifted.
Is “far” another state? Visiting Mom’s family in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dad’s in St. Louis, Missouri was technically “far,” but whenever you’re with my family, you’re home. Literally. We spent most of our time at relatives’ homes, and didn’t really explore the tourist attractions. (A day at Disneyworld and an outing to the Arch are standout memories.) Since then, I’ve visited more than half the states, but as a professor, no one thinks of our country as “far.”
So is “far” another country? The sole family vacation that we ever took was to another country. We went to Toronto when I was 5... I’d say that was “far,” but as everybody back home used to say, “Canada doesn’t count.” (Detroiters are blunt.)
After 9/11, people stopped saying that. Critiques of our neighbor to the North notwithstanding, Canada feels a million miles away from 45’s USA.
My life has not been filled with world travel. Nonetheless, I’ve always been intrigued by distance. I spent hours staring at the world map (Mercator projection) tacked on our bedroom wall. Among the many treasures in my grandparents’ home was a Cold War era globe. Long before Wikipedia was a real-life Hitchhiker’s Guide, I read accounts of faraway places captured in the pages of the encyclopedias my folks invested their blue collar dollars in, all in hopes that we might have a different life… perhaps far away from Detroit.
What does it mean to have “far to go?” When I was a participant in the Oakland (MI) Writing Project’s Summer Institute in 2009, we read Sara Fanelli’s My Map Book. Our instructors invited us to “draw the maps of our childhood neighborhood.” I was intrigued. In the decade since, I have asked students to construct similar maps…
Thursday’s child has far to go.
I’ve lived through 42 years of Thursdays and counting. One thing that I’ve learned on this journey (wayfarer, wanderer, pilgrim but not colonizer, along for the ride, ride or die)…
.…is something that our late cousin told my mom when she was younger and wanting to move away from her troubles in Detroit. A truism that has since passed into family legend…
“You take you with you wherever you go.”
Taking Cousin Willie James’ sage advice, this blog is my attempt to engage in public journaling after 5 years of public microblogging on Twitter. Mostly, it is a promise to myself for the next year of Thursdays, to keep this weekly time, to reflect on the journey thus far…
…taking me with me wherever I go.
So that it is feasible to keep this promise to myself, but also, so that this is of interest to any passing readers (after all, if it were just for me, I wouldn’t post it on the Web), I’ll divide these entries into 5 sections.: Mood & Aesthetic, What I Am Reading, What I Am Writing, Being/Doing/Going, and Word(s) of the Week.
“Mood and Aesthetic,” the section above, will be whatever I’m feeling at the time. Directly inspired by the moodboards of 2010s Tumblr participants. this section will not contain my prettiest or best writing. (After 145,000 Tweets, my days of looking pretty in public are in the rear view mirror.)
What I Am Reading will be just that: letting folks know what I’m reading. I don’t intend to write reviews, but I will list what’s at the top of my stack.
—I’ve just finished reading the April 2019 special issue of The Lion and the Unicorn, “From The Brownies’ Book to #BlackLivesMatter.” I have an article in it, but I was mostly interested in learning from my colleagues. Michelle Martin and Kate Capshaw curated a fine issue. This is essential reading for anyone studying Black US children’s literature and Black childhoods.
—Over the holidays, I’ve been following the situation with Romance Writers of America’s inexplicable actions against author Courtney Milan, who rightly noted the racism in a member’s books. You can read more about it from Mikki Kendall (NBC News) and Debbie Reese (American Indians in Children’s Literature).
—Next up is doctoral candidate and soon-to-be PhD Josh Coleman’s dissertation! Looking forward to it.
—And after that, I hope to make time to read Mildred D. Taylor’s conclusion to her epic Logan saga, All the Days Past, All the Days to Come, before the semester starts.
What I Am Writing is a place where I’ll talk aloud about whatever I’ve been working on during the week.
—I am trying my very best to finish writing the foreword to Rukmini Pande’s excellent edited collection Coloring Outside the Lines: Tracing Race/Ism in Fandom. It’s been quite a challenging read, because she and her contributors have much to say about the current state of fan studies. Some have been (rightly) critical of even minoritized acafans in the West/Global North. I welcome this new volume as part of the conversation.
—Once I file that (hopefully tomorrow, dear Lord Jesus), I plan to spend the rest of the weekend working through revisions of my YA fantasy novel. I’m determined to have it back to my agent by the time school starts on January 15. (Shout out to my friends Justine Larbalestier, Josh Aronovitch, and Clare Worley for providing useful advice.)
—I am super far behind on an academic book chapter that no one’s bothered me about. :)
—Early next week, it’s crunch time on my Spring 2020 syllabi. I need to finalize them, and post them so my Canvas sites can go live.
Being/Doing/Going may not be filled in every week, but if I’ve done something that I’d like to note, even if just for future reflection, I’ll note it.
—I just came home from spending the holidays in metro Detroit. There were moments of dismay at the pace of gentrification, as well as moments of joy, like discovering The Detroit Writing Room, which I’ve joined as a member.
—I always enjoy spending time with family and friends. It’s a time to recharge my batteries, because my life in Philly really is dominated by my work.
Word(s) of the Week will be my parting thoughts.
—This week, the words “gray” and “joy” have been resonating with me. (Right now, I’m dressed in a gray t-shirt & gray yoga pants. But I haven’t yet taken down my Christmas lights. Shining all around me, they make me feel joyous and hopeful about a new year, a new decade… and this new blog.)
No matter where you are in life’s journey this gray Thursday, I wish you joy.